How to Organize an Seed Interchange (Swap)

Interested in hosting a seed interchange or seed swap? This guide will help you organize your swap while educating people about the basics of seed saving and the structure of your seed library, if you have one.

The intention at Richmond Grows is to support other communities in having seed swaps and libraries. We now co-host our seed swap with BASIL (Bay Area Seed Interchange Library in Berkeley) along with several other local seed libraries. BASIL has been hosting a seed swap for over 15 years with an attendance of over 150 people. There is a potluck and live music. The signage you need may be scaled to the size of your event and venue. Take it. Tweak it. Make it you own. If you come up with some cool ideas, please do let us know as we widely share our resources with others. Suggestions or new material can me emailed to RichmondGrows@gmail.com.

Organizing a Swap

1. Promote event2. Create table signs3. Create educational posters4. Get your volunteers for set up5. Day of the event - to dos6. Clean up - organize volunteersHere's our To Do list for organizing a seed swap. Make sure you have lots of envelopes for folks to write info on. We have a stamp for Richmond Grows that we use and pre-stamp hundreds of envelopes before the event to encourage people to write quality information on the seeds they take with them. We use business envelopes and seal them and cut them in half. (Sometimes you can get these donated from companies who are going out of business or changing addresses or from printer errors.) If you have a web presence or email folks about the event, you may also want to have them be able download labelsso they can bring in well labeled seeds to share or they can have pre-printed blank envelopes to take seeds.

Swap Signage

We organized our tables, as well as our library, by plant families. Here are the signs that we use at our swaps. Everything is color coordinated to match with the organization of our library. For example, super easy seeds have green labels, easy is blue and difficult is yellow. "Borrower Beware" signs are orange.

At the Swap

Education

Brochures: Have plenty of "super easy" seed saving brochures available. Have people pass them out as folks enter the event or have them on the table. Here are the English and Spanish (in process of being re-edited) super easy brochures. Feel free to put your own contact info on the brochures.

Have people who are seed savers wear a badge that says "Ask me about seed saving." Let folks know in the beginning of the event that there are folks who can answer questions about seed saving. If you have a seed lending library, have folks who volunteer at the library have badges too so folks can learn about the library.

Have a class at or before the swap about seed saving or schedule a seed saving class a few weeks out and have flyers for the event. Get a list of names of folks who are interested in attending so you can send them an email reminder.

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Before Seed swaps can be a bit frenzied. You can set the mood for calmer event. It is helpful to have an opening circle before folks can take seeds. Here are some things that many communities do:

Express gratitude for the seeds and our ancestors who saved them. This is also a time to have folks who brought seeds to share to raise their hand or be acknowledged.

Encourage people that know about seed saving to wear "Ask me about seed saving" lanyards or some such identifier. You may also have people wear similar things with "Ask me about the seed library."

Clarify the purpose of the swap, ex. creating local resilience around food and seeds.

Explain how the swap works:

Encourage folks who have never saved seeds to save seeds from the "Super easy" plants they are borrowing (lettuce, tomatoes, peas, & beans) and hold a class flyer or seed saving brochure to remind people of the resources.

Encourage folks to Label! Label! Label! As a minimum, folks need to write the variety, species, and year. Explain why more information is better.

Remind folks of appropriate quantities: "Take a pinch of smaller seeds" or "2-3 seeds for each plant you intend to grow."

During the Swap

Every 20-30 minutes remind folks about the "super easy plants" and encourage them to ask someone with a badge about seed saving.

If you have a seed library and it's in the same building, give tours at regular intervals throughout your swap.

Have someone monitor the cucurbits (ex. squash, melon, and cucumbers). Ask people that are donating, if they hand-pollinated. If they didn't write "crossed?" on the packet. If you see packets and do not know the grower, see if you can find the grower and ask them about hand-pollination or mark the packets "crossed?" Explain to people interested in borrowing those seeds what is meant by "crossed?" and what might happen if they plant those seeds.